Trump secretly flew smaller jet out of Turkiye amid Iran threat: Washington Post

US President Donald Trump secretly flew out of Turkiye last month on a smaller aircraft due to an assassination threat from Iran, according to the Washington Post. On July 8th, Trump initially boarded an Air Force One jet in Ankara before transferring to a smaller C-32A aircraft that flew him to Britain. The switch was initially concealed from the public and even some officials, while media and others were led to believe Trump was still on the bigger jet.

The reason for this change was attributed to the Iranian threat, which had already come to light as the cause for Trump not flying out of Turkiye aboard the new Boeing 747-8, a gift from Qatar. Trump had initially used the older Boeing 747 for Air Force One because he wanted US military personnel at an airbase in Britain to tour the new plane.

However, concerns have been raised about the security features of the Qatar-gifted jet, as it lacked the same anti-missile defenses as the older aircraft, which had been in service since 1990.